


Shibi Approved!

by SpellCasterLight



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29330106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpellCasterLight/pseuds/SpellCasterLight
Summary: Shibi plays matchmaker; and it's surprisingly easy. [Shino x Tenten]
Relationships: Aburame Shino/Tenten
Kudos: 13





	Shibi Approved!

Shibi Aburame was currently sitting in a quiet tea shop on the main street of Konoha drinking his oolong tea wishing it was something stronger.

The Clan council members had spoken; they wanted to see Shino settle down and start thinking about marriage and creating new future heirs. Shibi wanted to uncharacteristically snort, they had just got out of a war only a few months ago, Shino was seventeen years old; didn't people have other things to worry about?

Only now getting around to truly thinking about it; what the heck was he supposed to do about it? He wasn't going to arrange a marriage for him. He had told the council members that right off the bat, he wasn't a Hyuga, and he wasn't as cruel as one. The council hadn't set up any sort of time line or anything but he had the distinct feeling that if Shino turned twenty without being engaged they were going to overrule him on the no-arranged-marriages front.

"Umm excuse me Sir?"

The voice had to repeat the statement a second time before Shibi realised someone was talking to him.

He turned his head to find a, rather pretty, brown haired girl, the hair being kept up in two neat buns, wearing a white and red Chinese influenced outfit; a rather large scroll seemed to hang at her lower back and a black leaf headband around her forehead looking at him with a slightly embarrassed look.

"Umm I'm sorry to bother you; but you're Shino's dad right?"

That made him sit up slightly and pay attention.

"You know my son?"

At his indirect confirmation that, yes, he was in fact, Shino's dad, the girl smiled.

"Oh good!" Her smile practically lit up and she bounced on her feet slightly holding her hands behind her back. "I was hoping I got it right! I kind of just wanted to ask how he was? I haven't seen him in a while is all." Her smile took on a slightly sad aspect. "I just wanted to make sure he was okay."

Shibi blinked behind his sunglasses.

She knew his son, she went out of her way to ask about him and she was worried about him? Was that him winning the lottery jackpot he just heard?

"He has been busy with clan meetings and overseeing the rebuilding of the compound." Shibi replied and the girl seemed to nod at his answer, her shoulders dropping from the slightly tense hold they had.

"That's good, at least he's not sick or something!" The kunoichi replied with a dazzling smile and Shibi heard that jackpot sound again. "I was wondering if you could pass on a message for me then?"

Did that mean she planned on leaving?

"Shino should be here soon." Shibi replied making the brown-haired girl tilt her head slightly. "Would you like to join me until he arrives? You could give him your message first-hand."

"I don't want to intrude."

"I insist, you would not be intruding."

At that the girl bounced on her feet again clasping her hands in front of her once.

"Then I'd love to! Thank you so much."

Shino, in fact, had never been told to meet his father there at all; so when the girl was ordering her own pot of tea and a few sweet snacks Shibi sent one of his bugs off to locate and tell his son to drop everything and join him.

He would probably be there in about forty-five or so minutes; more than enough time to find out more about this girl.

Her name was Tenten and she was a Chunnin level ninja (so was his son currently so he could work with that) only a year older than Shino (and a lot more mature and calm sounding than some of the kunoichi around their age range; that would work well with his sons personality) who trained under Gai Maito (a tough and persistent Jounin instructor so that was definitely a selling point) who specialised in the use of an obscene amount of ninja weapons (a kunoichi who could easily flick between being a long range fighter or a short range fighter simply by changing what weapon she was holding was indeed a fantastic skill) with the goal of creating her own weapon and opening a weapons store of her own in the future (the girl had drive and a goal; a brilliant combo).

She didn't have a clan name (he didn't care about that, they weren't the Hyuga, his own wife had had a clan name yes but it was such a small clan that it barely counted) but she, with determination and her own skill had made herself into what she was today and that was far more impressive than a name.

She also seemed to be a quite open and caring person, speaking about her friends and teammates with a fondness sometimes missing in the shinobi world. Isn't that something every parent wants in their child's potential spouse? Someone who would openly care about them.

She seemed perfect so far; but there were still the two biggest issues he wanted to cover before his son arrived. Best get the issue he couldn't be subtle about out of the way first.

"I hope we aren't keeping you from your boyfriend this afternoon. He'll have to forgive my son on his tardiness in keeping you." Tenten's face lit up in embarrassment, was that a good or bad sign?

She took a small sip of her tea with both hands not meeting his gaze before replying with a timid smile. "I-I don't have a boyfriend; so no problems there!" She laughed to ease the tension.

"I apologise that was rude of me." It might have been rude but now he had confirmation she was single, that was another tick on the potential-spouse checklist.

She waved off his apology. "Don't worry about it."

One last thing to cover then...

He placed his free arm on the table and mentally told a few of his beetles to head over to her side of the counter and to interact with her, but not to hurt her. Only a few dozen were needed, this was a fact finding mission not an attack.

The Kikaichu crawled in lazy, crisscrossing lines across the table towards her.

After a moment of looking stunned she relaxed and grew a small fascinated smile.

"Well hello little guys." When they crawled over her hand Tenten giggled. "Hey that tickles!"

She raised her finger, which several of his beetles had crawled onto, up to her face to inspect them further. "You know, you guys are kind of cute when you aren't part of a giant swarm of death."

Shibi's mouth twitched into a half smirk at that.

"Do you like sweets?" She set that same finger on her plate of treats. "Want some of mine?" She blinked in thought before looking up at him again. "Do they eat food? Or do they only eat chakra?"

"They only eat chakra, but they like the smell of sugary treats." He was lying through his teeth of course. The only smell they liked was the males being attracted to the females but Tenten didn't have to know that just yet. "They don't bother you?"

"I've seen Gai Sensei in a speedo." She shivered at the memory. "Nothing will ever bother me after seeing that!"

Shibi was sure he could add able-to-deal-with-traumatic-events to the girls list of abilities, and she didn't seem bothered by his beetles. That felt like two more positives to add to the list.

He recalled his beetles and lifted his head to find Tenten looking sadly contemplative.

"Is something wrong?"

She opened her mouth and closed it several times before solidifying her nerve. "Can I ask you something? About your beetles?" She threw her palms up in a surrender motion. "If it's too personal I-"

"You can ask of course." Shibi replied evenly and her hands came back to rest on the table and the sad look returned.

"Does it-does it hurt, you know-" She leaned in slightly. "-when they come out of your skin?"

He had been asked this question several times in his life, he was pretty sure every Aburame had, usually with less finesse than what she had and more 'disgusting' and 'eww's' thrown in.

"No it doesn't." His simple answer made her breathe a sigh of relief.

"I guess I kind of always feared, somewhere in the back of my mind, that it did and that Shino was in pain because of it." She rolled her eyes. "Guess it sounds pretty stupid now that I say it out loud huh? I asked Neji the same thing about activating his Byakugan back in the day and he just gave me this look to say I was a complete idiot."

"Your concern for my son is appreciated." Shibi replied honestly. He most certainly liked this girl.

Shino arrived in that exact moment by an elegant jump from the roof across the street, forty-three minutes after he had sent his Kikaichu to retrieve him. A constant overachiever. His gaze immediately fell on the girl accompanying him and he saw his son's eyebrow raise in confusion. "Tenten?"

"Hi Shino." She smiled easily at his son. "Long-time no see!"

"It is a great pleasure to see you again." Shibi thought that was an interesting choice of words for his son to use. "But may I ask why you are here? With my father?"

"I was just walking down when I saw him and asked about you." She tilted her head almost like she was trying to gauge Shino's reaction. "And then he sweetly offered to buy me tea while we waited for you!" She grinned raising her teacup in his direction. "We've been having a lovely chat haven't we Shibi?"

"Shibi?" Shino repeated turning his gaze to his father.

The elder Aburame had in fact insisted on the younger woman using his name instead of 'Sir' very early on in the conversation but Shino's reaction interested him. Was that a tremor of invidiousness in his son's voice?

Just to add icing to the envy cake Shibi raised his own cup and softly 'clunked' it against the girls making her laugh lightly. Shibi smirked behind his collar; he could almost hear the Kikaichu buzz in reaction to Shino's confusion and slight almost jealousy.

"But sit Shino sit!" Tenten patted the cushion beside her. "I'll order you some tea; what kind do you want?"

When Tenten was ordering for Shino his son threw him a look asking what the hell was going on, even behind his goggles and collar Shibi could read his son with ease. The clan head merely sipped his own tea feeling smug.

"So how have you been?" She asked the heir while she poured him a cup from the new pot of tea. "Shibi said you had been working on your clan compound? I hope it's all going well."

"The repairs are nearly complete." Shino replied after thanking her for the drink. "The bees are starting to move into their newly build homes so in a few months we shall have more stocks of honey again for the village."

"Oh that's cool!" Tenten applauded. "I must admit I've missed honey more than I should."

"You like honey?" Shibi asked refilling his own cup of tea.

"I like all sweet things." Tenten confessed with a grin. "But there is this peanut butter honey truffle recipe that I just can't live without. It's definitely my Achilles heel!"

"Perhaps you would like Shino to show you the apiary sometime?" Shibi suggested jumping at the chance to have these two interact more.

Tenten looked star struck. "Oh I would love that!" She turned to Shino. "Would that be okay?"

He saw Shino nod. "I would be honoured to accompany you."

Shibi mentally patted himself on the back.

The clan head sat back and kept quiet for the next fifteen minutes simply letting the two Chunnin talk as he observed. Tenten seemed to be have the perfect combination of knowing when to talk and knowing when to patiently wait for Shino to gather his thoughts and then letting him speak them.

She had stated to him earlier one of her teammates was a Hyuga and he knew from personal experience that sometimes getting a Hyuga to speak was as difficult as pulling out your own teeth; not that the Aburame's were much better. So her skill in getting a Hyuga to speak freely seemed to have carried over flawlessly. Another tick to his mental list of reasons why she would be a good match for his son.

When there was a dip in their conversation Shibi spoke up.

"Tenten did you not have a message for my son? The one you spoke of earlier."

"Oh Kami I completely forgot!" She laughed lightly before turning back to Shino who looked confused. "What are you doing Saturday afternoon? Are you free?"

'Two days after Shino's birthday.' Shibi's brain calculated.

"We're all getting together for a meal in the park and some drinks. Nothing fancy. Just to hang out. Please say you'll come?"

Shino seemed to think it over and Shibi had the irrational urge to smack his son upside the head.

When Shino finally spoke Shibi actually felt his hand twitch with the same urge. "Hinata told you it was my birthday I take it?"

Tenten rolled her eyes and let out a groan before punching him lightly in the arm. "Really? You couldn't even pretend to be surprised? Yes; Hinata mentioned it was your birthday soon and she said she was gonna try and get your team together because they hadn't seen you in so long but I said the rest of us haven't seen you either and it would be nice if we all got together soooo-" She shrugged. "-yea. So are you free or what?"

"Am I still required to pretend I do not know it is a surprise birthday party?"

Shibi could hear the amusement in his son's voice.

Tenten playfully glared at him. "If you want cake you will."

"Then yes; I am available for this no-special-occasion meetup."

The weapons mistress practically beamed at his son and Shibi could also see Shino's lips pull up at the corner for a smile just below his collar.

Tenten pretended to glare again pointing a finger at the younger Aburame. "But if make fun of the cake I'm kicking your ass and you won't get any cause I'm making it from scratch."

"I promise I will not insult the cake. Why? Because I am more than honoured that you would go to such trouble for me, thank you Tenten."

A pretty, embarrassed, blush spread over Tenten's cheeks at his sons, rather smooth, reply. If Shibi had his way they would be married tomorrow. Speaking of birthdays…

"Tenten." Shibi spoke and both Chunnin jumped in their seats, apparently, they had forgotten he was there for a point in time, too caught up in their own small moment. "We are having a family dinner on the actual evening of Shino's birthday. I'd be honoured if you would join us."

She spun from father to son and back again. "I don't want to steal your family time together…"

Much to his surprise and Tenten's it seemed; Shino placed his hand over Tenten's fist that rested on the table, forcing her to look at his son again. "I would very much like for you to join us. You would be a most welcomed guest."

Another pretty blush danced over her cheekbones before she nodded. "Okay then; yea I'd love to."

"I will escort you from your home on Thursday evening then? Would six o'clock be acceptable?" Shino asked and Shibi nodded, that would be about the right time yes.

She laughed at that. "You don't have to do that Shino! I can make my own way over. There's no point of you dragging yourself half way across the village just to go straight back."

"I insist. Why? Because you are our guest for the evening and will be treated as a guest from the beginning of the evening to end."

Shibi didn't know where Shino was spinning these lines from but he was starting to think he defiantly didn't get this romantic side from him. He was pitiful at this kind of stuff. It was amazing Shino's mother agreed to marry him at all.

The smile from Tenten's face suddenly dropped. "Oh no, what time is it?" She spun around and when she spotted the clock on the wall she cursed under her breath. "Dammit. I was supposed to meet my team ten minutes ago!" She stood from the table and started reattaching her large weapons scroll that she had had to take off to sit at the table. "I'm surprised they haven't started running around the whole village screaming my name!"

When her scroll was attached she smiled brightly at him before giving him a small bow. "Thank you so much for the tea, it was lovely meeting you Shibi."

"It was a pleasure meeting you as well Tenten." It really was.

She then turned to Shino, placing a hand on his shoulder with a small smile to accompany it. "I'll see you Thursday then?"

"I look forward to it."

"Me too, be safe until then!"

When she left Shino seemed to stare into space for a rather long period of time before putting his own hand on his shoulder where Tenten's had been only a few moments before.

The clan head took a sip of his tea. Maybe they could have a honey glazed wedding cake.


End file.
